From Our Latest White Paper: How HR Tech Can Help You Manage Your Health Care Talent Crunch
Health care relies on the human touch, but an investment in HR tech can definitely make it easier for you to recruit, hire and develop the talent you need to deliver it.According to a recent survey by PwC, more than 80 percent of North American health care organizations said they use cloud-based technology to manage at least one HR-related process, compared with two-thirds of respondents worldwide in all industries.Our latest white paper, “How Smart Health Care Leaders Are Facing the Talent Crunch,” can help health care HR leaders find more ways to use HR technology to address the staffing challenges they face. Here are a few of the ways it can help.
Automate Talent Management
Automation can help make HR management much more efficient, no matter the task. Performance management, leadership development and other aspects of managing personnel — for new hires as well as long-term employees — all benefit from streamlined processes and automatic notifications.For example, Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge uses an automated system for peer assessment, Singleton says. Such platforms can make it easier to track performance over time and set goals for employees. Woman’s Hospital also uses an online platform to assess critical leadership competencies and create electronic individual development plans based on the results. “It feeds into the succession-planning piece of the system we use as well,” says Wendy Singleton, the hospital’s director of nursing administration and magnet program director.Any paper-based or data-heavy HR process is a perfect target for automation. That was the case for Woman’s Hospital as it pursued the Magnet designation, which requires improved data management across the board. “It forced us to look at things differently,” Singleton says. Tracking employee performance and outcomes is a good place to start.
Predict Performance
As a service industry, health care relies on people, and determining what kinds of people will succeed at your organization can help improve outcomes, says Monica Wearren, talent-development and engagement manager at American Health Network, a network of health clinics. HR software that analyzes data and makes predictions based on those insights can help perfect your processes and get the right people in the right positions.For example, predictive analytics can determine that employees who are onboarded a certain way are more likely to stay longer, or that people with a certain personality trait are less likely to burn out in a certain position. Managers can significantly improve the experience of their patients and teams by using predictive analytics to understand the personalities, key strengths, values, motivators and communication styles of their employees and providers, Wearren says. Building stronger teams that uphold a culture of excellence can help organizations improve patient outcomes and satisfaction levels.To get the best fit from predictive software, identify the competencies and experiences that people need to succeed in the position you’re hiring for. Assess current top performers to establish a snapshot of what an ideal candidate might look like. Use these results to calibrate your assessment software to identify the best fit.
Promote Collaboration
Health care relies on communication, and HR tech has made it easier than ever for teams to communicate effectively. While collaborating on patient care is a top concern, HR tech can also help teams learn and train together as well as support and recognize each other.HR tech offers the opportunity to embrace a true team-based care model, with ways to empower, train and reward all levels of the organization to operate at the top of their license, Wearren says. For example, team training modules, mobile communication apps and other tech tools can help organizations strengthen teams while adhering to the pay-for-performance model. It can be a challenging call to action for HR professionals and leaders who are used to more traditional systems, but it also represents an excellent opportunity to change and embrace new models.Start with options that facilitate communication. “I really like what's taking place in the social intranet space,” Wearren says. Meet employees where they are by providing platforms for project collaboration, communication and crowdsourcing ideas, she says. Employees can then vote on and prioritize those ideas for implementation.The talent crunch in health care isn’t going away. But technology designed for HR can help you train, manage and develop your health care employees more efficiently as you face the challenge.For more tips on how to use HR tech in order to manage the talent crunch in health care, download our white paper.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.
